Since mid-March – as soon as it was safe - specialist staff have been working with experienced vets, wildlife carers, and animal welfare experts to respond to wildlife impacted by the bushfire.
Crews have been undertaking ground and aerial health assessments of impacted wildlife and are providing support for wildlife suffering from this significant event.
Aerial and ground assessments used established animal welfare guidelines to assess injuries and overall health of each individual animal.
However, due to the impacts of the fire and the resulting injuries and low likelihood of survival of many animals due to the sudden lack of food post-fire, many of the animals have required humane euthanasia.
In each case, this was the most humane action to relieve the pain and suffering of fire-impacted koalas and is supported by advice from wildlife experts and experienced vets.
Aerial operations finished on Friday 25 April, but ground crews are continuing to undertake wildlife welfare surveillance patrols of fire affected areas to provide support to wildlife.
The aerial operation identified and humanely euthanised impacted koala populations in areas of the park that were not accessible by foot, and that would have otherwise suffered unnecessarily due to severe injuries from the bushfire.
Further veterinary assessments have now confirmed that the overall state of welfare of koalas in the fire impacted areas of the park is significantly improved.
The updated assessment concluded that the emergency response to wildlife welfare including humane euthanasia have now alleviated suffering in those animals most severely impacted as a direct result of fire.
Since early March, 2,219 koalas have been assessed by both ground and aerial teams, with 48 percent identified as suffering severe injuries and burns from the bushfire and required humane euthanasia to relieve unnecessarily suffering.
To support healthy koalas and wildlife remaining in the park, an invasive species control program has been undertaken alongside the welfare response – this will help address issues of predation and competition from introduced species and help support recovery of the habitat and native species.
Koala health check programs will continue across the Budj Bim cultural landscape in the future, with information from this incident informing future decisions.
Through the BushBank program, the Victorian Government has provided up to $1 million to help create additional habitat on private land near the park to help improve food and habitat availability for koalas in the future.
Parks Victoria will reopen closed sections of the National Park over the coming weeks after the fire ground is declared safe.
Quotes attributable to DEECA Chief Biodiversity Officer, James Todd
“This has been a long, emotional and difficult animal welfare response, teams have been working hard since early March to respond to and provide welfare for fire impacted wildlife across Budj Bim National Park.”
“It was clear from early on that most fire-impacted koalas were in areas simply un-safe and virtually impossible for ground crews to access in a timely manner, which is why we took the decision to conduct aerial assessments and shooting where deemed necessary to remove koala pain and suffering.”
“This isn’t a decision we took lightly and was undertaken after we had confirmation of the effectiveness and humaneness of an aerial assessment and euthanasia program as well as advice from animal welfare experts and experienced wildlife vets. With the only viable options being to either just leave the koalas to deteriorate and die slowly and painfully or take proactive steps to end their suffering by using aerial assessments and euthanasia.”
“Ground crews will continue to do monitoring for some time, and longer-term, land managers will continue to do important health checks to support a sustainable population in the park.”
Page last updated: 09/05/25